A Normalish Birthday
by South of North
Summary: It's Max's 13th Birthday, and Angel and Nudge are set on giving her a normal birthday. Max watches a fairy tale, Iggy wears a dress, and Gazzy wears make-up.


**This is a regular day for the flock. It's Max's birthday, and Angel can't read minds yet. Just a short one-shot that takes place before The Angel Experiment. Warning: No pairings. None, zip, nada.**

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The first thing I saw when I woke up was black.

For a second, I thought I was blind. Then I sat up, and I realized that it was just...a shower curtain?

Today's my birthday (or at least the day I picked), and the first thing I see when I wake up is a shower curtain, in the bathroom, which is NOWHERE near my room. Great. Just great. At least I know who did this.

"GAZZY! IGGY!" I yell, knowing that the two pranksters would be behind this. They're always setting off bombs and pulling pranks. They didn't always, but ever since Jeb left, they've gone crazy.

The Gasman appeared at the door, Iggy behind him.

"Mornin' Max," Iggy said, looking at a point above my eyes.

"What am I doing in the bathroom?"

Gazzy stared at me like I was crazy. "I don't know, Max."

I wouldn't normally believe him, but I knew that they wouldn't (hopefully) pull a prank on my birthday. But _somebody_ was behind it, so I walked into the kitchen, leaving them behind.

"MAX!" Angel squealed, looking up from her breakfast-eggs, bacon, and toast. Mmmm, I thought to myself. "Happy Birthday!"

"Thanks," I smiled.

Over in the corner, Nudge was talking Fang's head off. She was going on and on about some new fashion trend. I could tell he wasn't interested by the look he gave me, but he kept on listening to Nudge.

"Happy Birthday," she said. Fang nodded. I smiled at them, then helped myself to breakfast.

"Soooooo," I said, drawling the word out, "I woke up in the bathroom this morning, with a nice view of a shower curtain. Anyone have any ideas why?"

Everyone started laughing-everyone, that is, except for Fang, Mr. Unemotional. I stared pointedly at him, and he gave me a look: _you-don't-know?_

"What-" I began to ask, but Gazzy cut me off.

"You sleepwalked your way into the bathroom. You kept saying things like 'Gotta get a toothbrush' and 'Need some soap.'" I started blushing, remembering the dream. Jeb had come back and started yelling at me, so I had tried to do everything perfect for him. Yeah, I know. The Great Maximum Ride trying to win a traitor over. So what? It was a _dream._ Just don't tell.

Nudge chimed in. "Yeah, and we all woke up earlier, and I noticed you, and I got everyone else up, and they saw you, but Fang wouldn't wake up, so we poured some water on his head, and then he told us to let you sleep, and we did, and then Iggy started making breakfast, and then on the radio-"

I could see this was going downhill, so I cut her off. "Look, I'm going back to sleep. See you later."

As I left, Iggy whispered to me: "Don't forget the soap!"

**x-x-x-x-x-x-x**

This time, I woke up to Angel and Nudge walking into my room. Angel shook my shoulder, and I slowly woke.

"Max...Do you think that we could have a sleepover tonight? Just the three of us, you know, doing our things? Like a regular birthday sleepover! We could watch a movie, and, and..."

That was-yup-Nudge. I zoned her out until the end, and I realized that she had just asked me about a sleepover. Sleepovers weren't really my thing, but I knew they wanted to make today special for me. Normal-you know, the kind of birthdays kids without wings have.

"Sure," I said.

"Yeah!" Angel squealed, her face filled with joy. "Okay, time for cake!"

"What cake?"

Fang walked in, holding a chocolate cake. Iggy was behind him, holding a bag of cranberries and scissors. The Gasman followed, looking excited. Iggy cut open and poured the cranberries on the cake.

"Sorry, _someone_ forgot" Iggy said, staring at Gazzy. He grinned.

After we stuffed ourselves with cake, they gave me presents. It was one of the few days in our lives that we were able to give presents, so I was happy that we had to opportunity. Angel gave me a new pair of boots (probably stolen, but still), Nudge gifted me a new pair of jeans, and Fang, Iggy, and Gazzy teamed up and got me an iPod (I couldn't believe they got one, and I didn't want to know how).

I was amazed that we were even able to give any gifts at all this year. Last year, we were so angry over Jeb and struggling to survive that it was a miracle to get through a day without a fight, explosion, or food poisoning. I was sure _something _was going to happen and ruin it.

I was right. There was Angel and Nudge's "Birthday" sleepover. Oh, joy.

**x-x-x-x-x-x-x**

"Okay, so I had Fang get us some ice cream, and popcorn, and chips, and a movie, so I think we're good!" Nudge seemed really excited-so excited that she was speaking in short sentences.

I looked at the title of the movie. It was "A Cinderella Story". I could tell this was going to be some sort of girly movie. _Okay,_ I told myself,_ I can do this._ Actually, I like movies with happy endings, but I was wondering why they chose the movie for my birthday. And this sleepover-I know they wanted me to have a normal time, but just weren't normal.

Nudge started the movie. Some girl was having a tough life, being ordered around by her stepmother. Huh. We had a harder life, we didn't even know if we would survive tomorrow. I let myself get into the movie, and I actually liked it.

"NO!" We all screamed when Sam didn't tell her "prince" who she was. See, the movie was exactly like Cinderella, Sam was Cinderella... You know what? Just watch it.

Anyway, about an hour later, the movie was finished, Sam had her prince, and the Stepmother was put to work.

"Max, can we get some ice cream?" Angel asked in her sweet little voice.

"Sure," I said, and hopped up to the kitchen. Nudge and Angel followed me.

BOOOM! A big explosion shook the house. I knew instantly who did it: Gazzy and Iggy.

"Okay, guys. I'm going to go get Gazzy and Iggy, and you're going to get some ice-cream, okay?"

"Okay!" Angel said.

As I walked outside, I could hear Nudge talking about which ice cream flavor she wanted. "Vanilla's good but plain, but Chocolate's so, like, chocolate-y, and mint chocolate chip is really strong, and peanut butter! Peanut butter's great, Angel! What are you getting, I think-"

"Gazzy! Iggy! What were you thinking? I'm just trying to spend a nice evening with the girls, and you go and blow up... What? A tree? You blew up a tree! Come on! That's just what I need!"

Iggy smiled at me, not even remotely embarrassed. Gazzy looked sheepish, his usual way of getting out of trouble.

Gazzy started to speak. "But, Max-"

"It was an accident? No. I know what we're going to do. You're going to come inside and do whatever the girls tell you to do, okay?"

Iggy looked alarmed. "Max!"

"Come on in."

**x-x-x-x-x-x-x**

One hour later, Gazzy and Iggy looked exactly like Princesses. Iggy had on a blue dress the same color of his eyes, and Gazzy had on a pink gown. Both had enough make-up on to cover a clown. I was struggling to not laugh, and even Fang (when did he get here) was cracking a smile.

I had an idea. "Why don't we play 'Baby, I love you, can you please just smile?'"

Angel and Nudge jumped on it instantly. "Yes!" They screamed.

This is how you play. Everyone stands in a circle, and one person is in the center. They walk up to someone, and tell them "Baby, I love you, can you please just smile?". The person that they ask has to answer "Baby, I love you, but I just can't smile" without laughing or smiling. If they smile, they're in the middle. If they don't, the other person just keeps on asking other people.

Iggy was it first. He walked right up to me, in his blue dress, and said "Baby, I loooovvveee you. Can you please just smile?" The whole time, he had a goofy expression on, and he was staring down at me, getting up in my face. Behind him, Fang was doing a half-smile, and everyone else was cracking up. I tried. I really did. But I laughed my head off.

We traded spots, and I walked right up to my sleeping bag, and put it around me like a dress. I then ran up to Nudge, and asked her to smile, while skipping around like an idiot. It worked.

She asked Fang, while doing some weird eye-lash thing. He didn't smile. She walked up to Gazzy, and did the same on him. It worked.

The game went on and on, and I got to see some strange things. Gazzy pretended to marry Fang, Nudge hung on to Iggy's leg, and I, well... Never mind.

It was a great birthday.

**x-x-x-x-x-x-x**

**Just wanted to find a story for the prompt:**** A sleeping bag, a bag of cranberries, and a shower curtain.**

******R&R?**


End file.
